VU Brief - Nov. 20, 2009

VU Brief Archive

 

ARRA:

  • Grants boost head, neck cancer research MORE

In Other News

  • From R&D to revenue MORE
  • Cancer medicines get personal(ized) MORE
  • Cardiovascular care ranked among best in nation MORE
  • The big move MORE
  • Marveling over ‘molecular chicken wire’ MORE
  • New effort draws bench, bedside closer together MORE
  • Toilet technology at VU in celebration of World Toilet Day MORE
  • Study: Surveillance can have negative impact on students MORE
  • Benbow wins national award for work with gifted children MORE
  • Vandy-UT's conflict of 1918 MORE

Grants boost head, neck cancer research
Wendell Yarbrough, M.D., associate professor of Otolaryngology and Cancer Biology, has been awarded two federal Challenge Grants for the study of head and neck cancer. The two-year grants, totaling more than $1.4 million, are part of the federal government's stimulus package and are funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Challenge Grants are among the most competitive, with only about 3 percent of applications receiving funding. The first grant, funded by the National Cancer Institute, will support human-in-mouse modeling of head and neck squamous cell cancer to predict response to therapy. Yarbrough's second research grant, funded by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, supports the development of a mouse model in salivary cancer. MORE

From R&D to revenue
Sifting through the data of Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s (VUMC) 1.7 million electronic medical records, the last thing on Daniel Masys’ mind is making a buck. He’s intent on finding patterns in the EMRs of patients who have experienced bad medication side effects. “I’m just after the science,” explained Masys, VUMC’s chair of biomedical informatics, whose work is funded by a $6.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. But if Masys and his co-investigator hit their target -- identifying common genetic markers in these patients’ DNA samples, which could be used to predict and prevent harmful reactions in others -- there may be a business opportunity to license that technology or develop a commercial product. That’s where Vanderbilt’s Office of Technology Transfer and Enterprise Development comes in. [The] office is responsible for protecting Vanderbilt’s intellectual property and making its discoveries available for public use by assisting with research contracts, securing patents, commercially licensing those patents and even assisting with start-up companies. Based on those efforts, Vanderbilt brought in $11 million in licensing revenue in the 2009 fiscal year. That’s almost three times as much as in 2004. MORE

Cancer medicines get personal(ized)
Can cancer treatments be tailored like clothing? Can the medicine be matched to “fit” each patient? Increasingly, the evidence is saying yes -- cancer treatments can be tailored when tumors have specific genetic changes that are driving their growth, and when drugs exist that counteract those signals. Simply put, personalized oncology means “matching the right drug to the right patient at the right time,” says William Pao, M.D., Ph.D., who is leading the new Personalized Cancer Medicine Initiative at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. Within the next year, Vanderbilt-Ingram aims to make personalized cancer medicine a routine part of clinical care. The initiative is being supported by the Robert J. Kleberg, Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation and an anonymous foundation. MORE

Cardiovascular care ranked among best in nation
Vanderbilt University Medical Center has been recognized for the second year among the top 100 U.S. hospitals that are setting the nation's benchmarks for cardiovascular care in a study by Thomson Healthcare. The study examined the performance of 971 hospitals by analyzing clinical outcomes for patients diagnosed with heart failure and heart attacks and for those who received coronary bypass surgery and angioplasties. Vanderbilt was one of 30 winners among teaching hospitals with cardiovascular residency programs. MORE

The big move
Last Saturday, the Critical Care Tower accepted its first patients as 62 people from the medical, surgical and neurological intensive care units moved into the addition. The carefully coordinated move took about six hours, and every patient was moved safely to his or her new room. The 11-story, $169 million expansion to Vanderbilt University Hospital houses 102 patient beds and 12 new operating rooms. The move marks the end of three years of planning and construction. MORE

Marveling over ‘molecular chicken wire’
The hottest new material in physics and nanotechnology is graphene: a remarkably flat molecule made of carbon atoms arranged in hexagonal rings much like molecular chicken wire. Not only is this the thinnest material possible, but it also is 10 times stronger than steel and it conducts electricity better than any other known material at room temperature. “There are two features that make graphene exceptional,” says Kirill Bolotin, who has just joined the Vanderbilt department of physics and astronomy as an assistant professor. “First, its molecular structure is so resistant to defects that researchers have had to hand-make them to study what effects they have. Second, the electrons that carry electrical charge travel much faster and generally behave as if they have far less mass than they do in ordinary metals or superconductors.” The research was supported by grants from Microsoft Project Q, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, and the Department of Energy. MORE

New effort draws bench, bedside closer together
A new educational effort at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), in conjunction with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), will bolster efforts to bring basic scientists together with medical clinicians, bridging gaps in culture and training, to address some of medicine's biggest challenges. The program, called the HHMI/VUMC Certificate Program in Molecular Medicine, will select eight Ph.D. students per year to participate in the three-year education program. The HHMI is awarding a total of $16 million through its Med into Grad Initiative. Each school will receive up to $700,000 over four years to develop the programs. Vanderbilt is one of 12 universities receiving Med into Grad grants for the first time. MORE

Toilet technology at VU in celebration of World Toilet Day
Vanderbilt is on the cutting edge in medical technology and academic research, but did you know the university is also on the cutting edge of toilet technology? In celebration of World Toilet Day on Thursday, Nov. 19, here’s some information to think about the next time you have to take a “bio break” on campus: In 2008, Vanderbilt committed to water conservation and a retrofit of restroom facilities across the campus. An investment was made in low flow, no touch faucets; low flow toilets; and waterfree urinals. Each year, these fixture retrofits will result in water savings of approximately 9 million gallons -- enough water to cover a football field 30 ft. deep in water (30 acre-feet) or fill 304,000 bathtubs. MORE

Study: Surveillance can have negative impact on students
Many schools now have extensive surveillance, monitoring and discipline programs in place to protect students. But are students any safer as a result? What is the cost of these measures in terms of student well-being? These issues and more are the topic of a new book, “Schools Under Surveillance: Cultures of Control in Public Education,” released this month by Rutgers University Press. “People tend to think of surveillance in terms of Big Brother, so they don’t necessarily see the many forms of monitoring, identification and control in our lives,” Torin Monahan, the book’s co-editor and associate professor of human and organizational development and medicine -- at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, said. MORE

Benbow wins national award for work with gifted children
Camilla Benbow, dean of Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, received the National Association for Gifted Children’s (NAGC) 2009 Presidential Award at the group’s annual convention in St. Louis, which was held Nov. 5-8.  The NAGC President's Award reflects a body of work or significant impact an individual has made on gifted education. Benbow was selected for her record of accomplishments in the field of gifted education and contributions to the national landscape. MORE

Vandy-UT's conflict of 1918
The date was Nov. 9, 1918. One great conflict had just been resolved and another one began. The day before, Germany agreed to the surrender terms dictated by President Woodrow Wilson to end World War. But the conflict, which began that day, continues 91 years later. The Conflict: Did Vanderbilt play Tennessee in a football game in 1918? The Commodores say "yea" and the Vols say "nay" . . . well, sort of. According to the 2009 media guides from both universities, Vandy claims to have one additional win (28-70-5) over who shows one less defeat with the Commodores (70-27-5). Tennessee doesn't include the game as official. MORE